Ex-suffolk Officer Accepts Deal On Sexual-battery Charge

SUFFOLK — A former Suffolk police officer entered an Alford plea for sexual battery Friday and accepted a deal that ended his career as a police officer.

Christopher Dion VanArsdale still worked as a city police officer when he showed up -- in uniform with his police cruiser -- at a Suffolk woman's home Feb. 18.

VanArsdale met the woman a day earlier, when he helped her daughter after her car ran into a ditch.

Ten days later, the woman had filed a complaint, and VanArsdale, 28, was charged with forcible sodomy.

He resigned from the force the same day.

VanArsdale entered his plea on the lesser charge, misdemeanor sexual battery, in an agreement with the victim and with Ron Batliner, a Norfolk attorney named as special prosecutor because of VanArsdale's city connection.

Judge Robert Edwards sentenced VanArsdale to 12 months in jail, which was suspended on the condition of two years of good behavior.

VanArsdale isn't allowed any contact with the victim or her family, and he will not be able to work as a police officer, in Suffolk or anywhere else.

Batliner said his main reason for accepting the deal was the victim's agreement.

"She feels vindicated," he said.

The former officer agreed to the lesser charge under what's called an Alford plea, a type of plea in which a defendant maintains innocence but acknowledges that there's enough evidence to convict him.

VanArsdale agreed to it for the sake of his family -- he's married and has children -- and moving on with his life, said his attorney, Jo Anne Spencer. Spencer said fighting the forcible-sodomy charge could have taken months and likely would have been a high-profile case.

"He's lost his job, his career," she said. "This allows him to move forward. Everybody has to weigh those things."

- Patrick Lynch can be reached at 357-4138 or by e-mail at plynch@dailypress.com